what we do
we back the most ambitious technical women to build startups from scratch, through our 3 pillars: our fund, accelerator, and global community.
37.5% of our accelerator alumni are based in the Bay Area, 30% in the UK, and the rest across Europe and beyond.
- the fund first cheques into all-female, all-technical teams at pre-seed; cornerstone-backed by the British Business Bank.
- the accelerator eight weeks, two in-person in Norway, six hybrid; the world's first all-female, all-technical accelerator.
- the community 38 events across 11 cities and 4 countries; 1,500+ technical women hosted in person.
why we do it
women-owned businesses are a better bet.Female-founded startups consistently outperform startups with all-male teams, yet receive a fraction of the venture funding.
When presented with identical pitches, both male and female investors rate those pitched by men more favourably.
Brooks et al., PNAS, 2014Female-founded firms whose first-round backing came from female rather than male investors are twice as likely to fail to raise a further round. There is no equivalent effect for male-founded firms.
Snellman & Solal, Organization ScienceMale founders are more often asked "promotion" questions about what might go right, while female founders are asked "prevention" questions about what might go wrong. In comparable companies, entrepreneurs asked primarily prevention questions raise an average of seven times less.
Kanze et al., Harvard Business Review, 2017We believe in creating an entirely new pipeline for backing exceptional female founders, from idea stage to pre-seed and all the way through to exit or IPO.
where we are
- 2024 4 events
- 2025 20 events
- 2026 14 events ...so far!
Two accelerator cohorts and 500+ applications, all reached organically, and a fund cornerstone-backed by the British Business Bank.
- 8.7% acceptance rate, cohort 1
- 7.4% acceptance rate, cohort 2
Dr. Milette Gillow - PhD mathematics, Leeds; started university aged 16.
- Investor and founder-in-residence at Entrepreneurs First; VC analyst in Berlin and Hong Kong; EWOR venture scout.
- Governing board, Oxford High School GDST.
our team and partners come from
- 70% of participants met a potential co-founder at a bros event post-event surveys, 2024-25
- 80% report being more likely to found a startup after attending a bros events post-event surveys, 2024-25